The proposed sale of this equipment will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

REUTERS

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency has said the U.S. Department of State made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Ukraine of Javelin Missiles and Javelin Command Launch Units (CLUs) for an estimated cost of $47 million.

"The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release on March 1.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on March 1.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region, it said.

The government of Ukraine has requested to buy two hundred ten (210) Javelin Missiles and thirty-seven (37) Javelin Command Launch Units (CLUs) (includes two (2) Javelin CLUs to be used as spares). Also included are Basic Skill Trainers (BST); United States Government and contractor technical assistance, transportation, training and other related elements of logistics and program support.

The prime contractors will be Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin Joint Venture of Orlando, Florida and Tucson, Arizona. However, these missiles are being provided from U.S. Army stocks and the CLUs will be obtained from on-hand Special Defense Acquisition Fund (SDAF)-purchased stocks. There are no known offset agreements proposed in conjunction with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will require U.S. government and/or contractor representatives to travel to Ukraine temporarily in order to conduct training.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency says its notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the U.S. Senate in mid-November passed by voice vote fiscal 2018's nearly $700 billion defense policy bill, which provides $4.6 billion for deterring Russia in Europe and some $350 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including defensive lethal assistance. In December, U.S. President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) at the White House.

UNIAN memo. Javelin is a fire-and-forget missile with lock-on before launch and automatic self-guidance. The system takes a top-attack flight profile against armored vehicles (attacking the top armor, which is generally thinner), but can also take a direct-attack mode for use against buildings, targets inside the minimum top-attack engagement range, and targets under obstructions. The missile also has the ability to engage helicopters in the direct attack mode. It can reach a peak altitude of 150 m (500 ft) in top-attack mode and 60 m (190 ft) in direct-fire mode.

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